


The Nanny

by Witch_Nova221



Series: Good Omens Celebration 2020 [7]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: GOC2020, Gen, Good Omens Celebration 2020, Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens), Ineffable Idiots (Good Omens), Nanny Crowley (Good Omens), Pre-Armageddon, Protective Crowley (Good Omens), Raising a Child, Tutor Aziraphale, alternative universe, raising warlock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:28:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24056716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Witch_Nova221/pseuds/Witch_Nova221
Summary: Good Omens AU - Aziraphale has been Heaven's operative on Earth for millennia but has never encountered his demonic counterpart. When Gabriel sends him on a mission to weaken the young Anti-Christ though, he finds Crowley where he least expected to. Written for the Good Omens Celebration 2020 with the prompt Alternate Universe.
Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: Good Omens Celebration 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1728172
Comments: 13
Kudos: 78
Collections: Good Omens Celebration





	The Nanny

It was no the oddest assignment Heaven had ever given him but it was the most troubling. He had been aware the Anti-Christ was on Earth. Heaven was well versed in demonic workings even though there seemed to be little formal communication with the other side but Gabriel had seemed nonplussed, merely mentioned it in passing one day and telling Aziraphale that he had eleven years to wrap up his job on Earth and prepare for the coming war. He didn't want a war, he liked Earth and the humans he had watched over for so many years. God was not forthcoming when he beseeched Her for Her reasons, She merely directed him to Gabriel – Her words always spoken through the Metatron- who would inform him of Heaven's position.

Aziraphale didn't like Heaven's position and he knew there were a good few others of his angelic brothers and sisters who agreed with him. They may have thought him odd, he was after all the only one who had remained on Earth for quite so long and he had gone a bit native, but they still wanted things to remain unchanged. They all remembered the first war, the horror and the blood and the loss of angels who had once been friends to the depths of Hell. There had been no glory, only sadness and pain they were never allowed to acknowledge and they had no wish to experience it again. There was no plan though, no idea how they could stop it. Instead, they took solace in each other, a little blue pin on a lapel or a cuff that they played off as a fashionable bauble, but the exact placing would tell another that the angel before them was indeed objecting to the promised fight with Hell.

In the five years since the birth of the Anti-Christ, they had worked on ideas of how to stop it but nothing had been found. Aziraphale's bookshop, his own precious place on Earth, had become a haven for them and he often would have angelic visitors as well as the humans who came in to peruse the shelves. It was not often however that he received Gabriel, an angel who was decidedly intent on the coming war and expected everyone to behave the same. So, after Aziraphale had spent several hours listening to Gabriel extol the glories before them, the crux of the matter was finally reached. Heaven was worried. Heaven was not sure that the Anti-Christ wouldn't be too strong for them to defeat. Heaven needed to win and Aziraphale was going to ensure it.

That was how Aziraphale found himself stood outside the countryside residence of one Thaddeus Dowling, preparing to take up the position of tutor to his five year old son, Warlock. He stretched out his senses, tasting the slight demonic tang that told him an agent of Hell was nearby, the information from Gabriel had been correct. 

The demon Crowley. It was a name and a reputation that Aziraphale had heard throughout time. Hell's operative on Earth but Aziraphale had never encountered him. Allegedly though, he was now in residence at the Dowling's home, working on making the child as evil as possible. Aziraphale wondered what nefarious role he had wormed his way into to influence the child in such a way, no doubt a position of power in the house, a head butler or secretary to the father in order to influence the son. It would no doubt be something that required minimal effort, he was a demon after all. Aziraphale was prepared for him though, as a Principality he was more than equipped to handle a single demon, and he would have to accept the angel's presence in the house and his influence on the boy. There was little the demon could do to counter him without arousing the humans' suspicion and that was a no-no on both their sides. 

Squaring his shoulders, he stepped up to the door and pressed on the bell. The door opened to reveal a formidable looking security guard but Aziraphale knew on sight that this was not his opponent. Another aide, a woman this time with too high heels and too much make up but equally non-demonic led him to an opulent study, and Aziraphale found himself welcomed warmly by his employer and his wife. 

Though he had already been formally interviewed by the pair, they seemed keen to further quiz him before they introduced him to their son, but Aziraphale's back story was strong and held fast. He was growing bored with it though when the hour struck, wanting nothing more than to acquaint himself with his charge to ascertain just how far down the route of evil he had been pushed and to find out just who was doing the pushing. 

The sound of laughter from below broke through his thoughts and he was grateful that he had been seated by the window, allowing him to look out onto the gardens below. The laughter was from a small boy who was struggling to stay on his bike but loving the challenge. Running beside him and keeping him upright was a flame-haired woman, strands flying in the breeze where they had broken loose from the bun she wore it in catching occasionally in the dark sunglasses she wore. Her uniform was severe but she moved easily in the tight black skirt and heavy jacket, easily keeping pace with her charge as she laughed along with him.

A jolly boy then, thought Aziraphale, there was hope as yet.

'An active child,' he said, nodding towards the window. 

Mrs Dowling got to her feet, 'He has a strict outdoor program of activities,' she said, 'He needs to be kept fit, the schools back home are very keen on physical fitness and there is no reason to squander that just because we are here. You will have assistance in that area, Mr Fell, if you are not athletically inclined.'

Aziraphale simply nodded, ignoring the less than subtle barb. 'Perhaps I could meet the young man. The sooner we begin, the sooner he is on route to great learning.' 

'Harriet, take Mr Fell downstairs,' said Mr Dowling, 'Our red-headed matron can deal with introductions.'

He was not so much taken downstairs as waved at the nearest staircase once he had been shown the door of the study but he was more than happy to make the journey alone, finding his way to a set of elegant patio doors that stood open onto the garden. The remains of a picnic lunch had been abandoned on a blanket, as well as several books and toys. He smiled at the sight of childish drawings laid next to a study of the child made by a much more practised hand. Aziraphale was hopeful that a nanny with such an artistic bent would be a gentling influence on the child, even if someone in the house was persuading him elsewhere. 

He was so lost in the thought that it was only when he was nearly upon Warlock and his nanny that he felt the definite tang of a demonic presence. He looked around himself, waiting for his eyes to fall upon the nefarious creature lurking whilst Warlock was innocently at play but there was no one to be found, only the child himself and his nanny. As his eyes fell on her, he felt it, the unmistakable jolt of being so near to one from Hell. He shook his head, unable to believe that it was her as she laughed and caught up her charge as the bicycle finally won. 

He knew she had sensed him too as her back stiffened and she tightened her arms around the boy. Her face was inscrutable though, still wearing a smile as she got to her feet, holding tightly onto Warlock's hand as she approached.

'Is that my teacher, Nanny?' asked the boy, making to run towards Aziraphale but the demon held him fast.

'Walking feet, dear,' she said, 'I do believe he is. Mr Fell?'

Aziraphale nodded, 'The same,' he said, 'And you must be...'

'She's Nanny,' chirped Warlock, 'And I'm a space man.'

'A space man, indeed,' said Aziraphale, trying to keep his words measured as he warred between his natural urge to face the demon before him and the necessity to fulfil his assignment, 'And where have you flown off to?'

'Affa Century,' said Warlock, 'In my spaceship.'

'Alpha Centauri,' corrected the Nanny, 'Why don't you go fetch your picture that you drew this morning to show Mr Fell?'

'But it's in my room,' whined Warlock.

'Bet you can be there and back before I count to ten,' said Nanny.

'Nine and a half,' said Warlock, loosing her hand and running to the house. 

The silence was stifling as he headed through the door but Aziraphale was shocked by the words that broke it.

'Please don't hurt him.'

'I beg your pardon?' said Aziraphale, turning back to see the dark glasses removed to show golden, serpentine eyes that were filled with tears.

'Please don't hurt the child,' said the demon, 'That's what you're here for isn't it?'

Aziraphale huffed. 'I would never harm a child.'

'Then why are you here? He's none of yours. I swear that if you harm so much as one hair on his head, I will not hesitate. I don't care what you do to me, angel, but you won't hurt him.'

'You speak as though you care for the boy. I'm sure your master will be pleased you take your task so seriously.'

'Don't speak to me about my master. He only wants to boy to...never mind. Be on your way. I can have others here in seconds if it's a fight you're after.'

Aziraphale took in the sight of her once more, her figure shrunk with a misery he could feel coming off her in waves, a desperation not for her own safety but for the boy. He shook his head. Love. Love poured from the demon before him, pure and delicate, the love for a child.

'I don't understand,' he said, 'You...the child.'

She choked back a mirthless laugh. 'Poor excuse for a demon, I know,' she said, 'Been around humans too long, picked up some bad habits.'

'You love him?'

'With everything left of my heart,' she admitted miserably, 'He's a good boy, a gentle boy despite what he is and I've tried to raise him that way. The only thing I'm any good at is lying to my superiors. They don't care as long as I tell them he's evil. Please don't hurt him. It's not his fault he is what he is.'

'Rest assured, I mean him no harm,' said Aziraphale, 'My role here, my mission is to temper his demonic tendencies, weaken him for the coming war but it seems I am not needed. If only it could be avoided altogether.'

'If only,' muttered the demon, 'I have heard of you, you know. I've been on the look out for you for millennia. Aziraphale, isn't it?'

Aziraphale nodded. 'And you are the one they call Crowley?'

'Yes, though here I'm Nanny Ashtoreth.'

Aziraphale couldn't help the small laugh that left him, 'If Mr Dowling had called you that I wouldn't have been so startled to find out who you were.'

Crowley shrugged, 'Closest place to the child. Closer than his own mother in this house, poor thing. He's as much of a pawn for his adoptive parents as he is for his real father.'

'I'd never thought I'd find a demon who cared as you do.'

'Like I said, bit of a failure,' said Crowley, 'Don't mind you knowing it though, seeing as you aren't here to hurt him. At least, I'm truly hoping you aren't.'

Aziraphale looked around himself before he turned up the collar on his jacket to reveal the blue pin he wore there. 'I would never harm a child, but I will try to stop him being a weapon to start this war, not just weaken his potential. There are so many who do not want it in Heaven.'

'In Hell too,' said Crowley, unfastening the cuff on her jacket and rolling back the sleeve to reveal a rune etched into her skin, 'Mark of the resistance. We've had our asses handed to us once, a few of us don't fancy it again.'

'So it appears we are on the same side,' said Aziraphale, 'Not something I anticipated.'

Crowley smiled, 'Me either,' she said, 'But as we are, help me to save him? He's a good boy, I'm sure you'll get to like him.'

Aziraphale nodded extending his hand to her, 'I will,' he promised.

'Thank you,' said Crowley, shaking his hand before her smile widened, and she covered her eyes with her glasses once more, 'Excuse me a moment... eight... nine... nine and a quarter...'

'Back!' cried Warlock, as he crashed into her legs with a laugh, 'Told you I was quick.'

'Super quick,' she said, 'Now, how about we have some tea and you can show Mr Fell your drawing. I think it's time you were properly introduced.'

Warlock grinned before running back to their picnic. Aziraphale watched him go before turning back to the demon at his side, eyes hidden but a soft smile on her lips. 

'Well then,' he said, offering her his arm, 'Miss Ashtoreth?'

'Thank you,' she said, taking his arm as he led her back to their charge.


End file.
